A fortress floating in the sky as if it had been uprooted from some mysterious land and set adrift in the air. A mythical setting with a purple sky and iceberg blue water all around broken only by bits of land passing underneath. A boy hanging by a few dangling roots underneath the floating mass as a young girl rushes to save him. It is too late - the boy falls -- The dream is always the same. The sisters said that it started when I was very young at the orphanage. I used to wake everyone up at night with my screams. The nuns didn’t bother waking me up - they locked me in the basement each night to muffle the sound and they would begin each day by giving me a stern lecture on how much of a burden I was - it was no wonder my mother abandoned me and  what a wretched unholy child I was. This dream has been articulated again and again, always the same dream, by Orion to his shrink since he started going 6 months ago. The answer was always the same - orphans want to be loved - dreams - another world to escape to - reality - nobody wants me. Orion had heard the same explanation too many times - all he wanted to know was why. Why was he abandoned - why was he never adopted - why did everything come so easy to him - why has he dreamt one dream each night for as long as he could remember.  Whoever had the answers to these questions was dead or didn’t want to be found.  Orion went home and started playing his company's latest video game - a reincarnation of an old classic game popular when he was a kid. It was his idea to bring it back - every good idea his company has ever had was his. Orion was the youngest executive ever appointed in the industry. The game he was playing was his favorite.  A story of war and of magic - a sorcerer plaguing the world with famine while his armies conquer and pillage. His brother - escaping the sorcerer’s clutches - casts a spell on one village because within that village lies a hero of prophecy not yet conceived that will stop his brother and his insane quest, after which his evil twin brother terminates him as the walled village vanished from sight.  The prophecy came to pass as the brother foresaw - the hero was born, destined to rule and save the world. Orion had always liked it in part because it paralleled his reoccurring dream. He had beaten this game many times - each time using the same strategy - the only way that he could ever win. He did not believe in cheats so he would use his friends as decoys and healers, sacrificing them so that his hero could unleash his most advanced attacks without retribution.  A few hours later and a few too many continues - he has won. The end movie/credits roll and that’s it - but what happens after that - maybe he should develop a sequel to this remake since he could tell that the game was as good as ever. He was tired - he grabbed a coke from the fridge and sat back down in front of his tv. Fuck shrinks - they don’t know shit - I can manipulate that fool like silly putty in my hand -whatever - I don’t care who my parents are - if they abandoned me that must mean they were fucking losers anyway - I’m fine by myself. He went to the window - his constellation was high in the dark sky - no moon - no clouds - everything was still and quiet.  Orion always felt strangely comforted by the stars - like he wasn’t alone - sure he had a gang of friends that enjoyed mischief as much as he did, but Orion never felt like any of them could understand him. Orion was probably the smartest person on the planet though he’d never take any test to prove it. Orion went his computer and starting conversing with his friends on irc - nothing - his friends were ok but sometimes they can be so fucking stupid and boring - talking about some bitches ass they saw at school for 300 lines (all of his friends were around his age but were still in high school). He quit irc and started reading the reviews of his latest game to be released - all top marks. Video games are so easy - theres a story, a pupose - played out for a person’s enjoyment and escape - from. Reality - not so easy. In order to build the action and drama in a story, certain steps lucky breaks chance encounters take place - that would not happen in reality. In real life - anything can happen - the hero can be overwhelmed by the final boss on the first level and evil can triumph over good - there is no structure no story and no rules to reality - fuck it - I do this too much - question ‘would this - could this really happen if this game were real’.  I’m still amazed that I get paid to make and play games for a living.  Then Orion remembered that he had to make a presentation tomorrow morning - all the materials were on his desk - he was going over them when he heard a voice - very faint - almost a whisper -muffled- a slight buzzing inside his head. It - grows in volume… very slow-ly… until -- a figure steped out of his computer monitor frozen on a site featuring a preview of the game he had just played. She was - luminescent, but with no real presence - just a flicker of light - like looking back at the projector in a movie theater watching the picture flickering down towards the screen. She walked over to him, a look of relief and a smile - she was looking at something dangling from neck. Then, edging closer to him she began to speak. At the sight of her Orion backed up against the wall. This must be some kind of trick - possibly some new form of technology - like a hologram internet phone call - but who was she? He didn’t know her- or did he? Somehow she felt - warm - right.  She said that he must come with her - he is needed back home.  Orion didn’t have a home but she insisted -  that the game he has played so many times before is real -- for the most part. She knew his name and told him of how he was playing as a boy when he slipped and fell from their fortress in the sky. The town magician used all his power to break a passage through the dimensions to save you from certain death, sending you to this alternate dimension until he could bring you back. What was supposed to take minutes had taken many years. Now she had but a few precious seconds before the passage closed - perhaps forever. The nuns at the orphanage had overheard the dreams and wrote down every detail. The tried to publish the story as a novel, but the only place that would take it was a struggling company in the burgeoning new video game industry. They retained the rights to story and have been living well collecting payments ever since. Those dreams were fragments of his childhood that had surfaced - a fundamental genetic desire to be where you belong. They were written off as an abandoned child's wild imagination and discredited - reality. So the last of our magic was used to send me through to bring you back - to fulfill the prophecy and take back our world. Orion was excited at the prospect of living the game he had loved for so long - fuck yeah - I’m a fucking gamer bitch let me at that fucking sorcerer fag - I’ll fuck his shit up no problem.  Then, he hesitated - remembering his thoughts about what would happen if video games were real - it had always been a game of sorts - something to occupy his mind - thinking of the game in terms of what would really happen - but the irony is any invention of circumstances upon reality would be futile. Everyone is independent of thought - and of any kind of central plot which exists in stories of any sort - to try and fabricate the actions of every character involved in a real setting would only be a biased guess by the writer. Only a God can write reality. Still - I can’t this pass this opportunity up - if what she says is true. I don’t even know her - but why would she be here if she’s not telling the truth - I have nothing of value to steal and I have no enemies that would want me dead - I barely have any friends If you can call them that. She came out of my computer - so I’m willing to go on a little faith that she’s telling the truth - which means I am the hero of this game - world - whatever - strange, I’m not exactly what you would call an ideal hero - well maybe I am a hero to the people on the planet I come from. Maybe I shouldn’t question everything to death and go fuck some shit up.  I’m ready - fuck this planet - I never belonged here in the first place. She threw a handful of shiny dust from her hand - specks of pure light shone gold as they hit the screen - now a liquidy light texture that began seeping onto his desktop - he felt air blowing from the other side of the screen - he went to touch it but she stopped him, taking his hand she closed her eyes and placed her hand on the screen - something formed around her hand tracing a circle around it with markings inside - when the symbol was complete blinding light shot from the lines indented upon the surface and they were gone - in the blink of an eye. His place was pitch black now - the circuits had blown  -silent- Orion had no ties holding him down - dark and empty - no reason to stay no reason to care. He was going back - to his home and his world to live the dream - a real illusion.